Initially, you’re excited. You are gang busters to get this new thing done. Then, reality hits. You start running into problems. You don’t know how to do this; you don’t know how to do that. Then you make a breakthrough, and you are motivated all over again. The cycle continues over and over until you finish.

Think about how many things you would like to do, but blow off because you are afraid you’ll fail. This is when Henry Ford’s quote comes into play. When you see failure before you begin, you will probably not do that thing. You figure, I’m going to screw it up, so why put in the effort.

Let me fill you in. You will always fail when you try something new. Why? Because it’s new. You can do some research to see where others have failed, but we are all creative. We’ll figure a way to screw up that no one else has figured out.

Here’s a technique you can use to achieve your next goal. Visualize what you want. See yourself complete it. Feel how you will feel when you’ve achieved the goal. The visualizing is more powerful when you can visualize how you will feel.

You see, we are wired to scan our environments for hazards. This is how our mind is built to ensure our survival as an organism. When we see obstacles to our goals, we worry, we get stressed out; we visualize what would happen if we hit one of those things. The negative visualization and the feelings we automatically associate with these visualizations are automatic.

To overcome these negative visions, we have to replace them with a vision of success and combine that vision with the feelings we will have when we complete our goal. This is all associated with the Law of Reversed Effort. When we reverse the way we look at things, we can achieve them. You see?

So here’s what you do. Whenever you get frustrated or stressed out over pursuing one of your goals, take a few minutes to close your eyes, visualize achieving the goal you’ve set for yourself, and add feeling to these visuals. You will immediately change your viewpoint and your body will react in kind, just like it does with the automatic negative feelings you generate without too much thought. This is how you take your mind off of the obstacles in your way and reset your sites on the achievement of your goal. Practice this. At first, you may not reap the benefits you are seeking. Keep at it. Once you develop this skill, you will no longer be plagued by the obstacles that are in your way and achieving goals will become easier and easier, despite the difficulty.

I hope this helps those of you who are struggling with self-defeating thoughts.